


She Knows

by goldenspecter



Category: Danny Phantom
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Emotional Manipulation, F/M, Identity Reveal, Possession, Requited Unrequited Love, its kinda a bumpy ride?
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-25
Updated: 2020-12-25
Packaged: 2021-03-11 02:49:13
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,799
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28257966
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/goldenspecter/pseuds/goldenspecter
Summary: Paulina was conscious when she got possessed and learned a secret she was not meant to learn: Danny Fenton is Invis-O-Bill.Paulina will keep Danny safe. No matter what.
Relationships: Danny Fenton/Paulina Sanchez
Comments: 14
Kudos: 70





	She Knows

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Litastic](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Litastic/gifts).



> This is for my really good friend Chintastic over on the Phandom Slack who really wanted some good old Pink Astronaut. So I delivered, I think. 
> 
> I wanted to incorporate a headcanon that I had that Paulina had known who Danny was the entire run of the series but kept up her act in order to keep him safe. This particular part is set within the episode of Lucky in Love. I know that it will probably be marked complete but if enough people want me to(and I might be planning on it), I'll write some other parts during the other episodes she was possessed and some other moments. 
> 
> To my really good friend, chin and to everyone else reading, I hope you enjoy!

Paulina didn’t really remember what she was doing before her body no longer became her body. She knew that she was at the waterpark, with her best friend Star but the details of what they were doing were forever lost to the passage of time. Paulina remembered a frosty chill that chilled the air around her, a frosty chill that consumed her body before she blacked out. 

The next time she opened her eyes, her body was no longer hers. She had no clue what was going on with her body but she tried to fight for control and ultimately lost, forced to be a passenger in her own body. 

Her arms moved against her wishes, her feet took steps when she didn’t want them, her mouth moved and spoke words that she did not want to say. 

And she learned a secret that she was not meant to learn: 

Danny Fenton, the loser of Casper High, was _Invis-O-Bill._

Her first thought was filled with unimaginable horror. Because Fenton- _Danny_ was dead. Living, breathing people don’t become ghosts. They have to _die_ in order to do that. But then through a hazy memory that she had, she remembered that she saw him transform back into Fenton, back to his human self. People should not be able to do that, have access to powers that only ghosts have. Ghosts should not be able to have the threshold for living. What was Danny? Was he some in between that straddled the line?

Paulina was not allowed to think about the implications of that thought if it was true before her body was moved against her wishes and she’s standing face to face with Danny Fenton, Invis-O-Bill himself. 

“You’re the ghost boy?” She asked. It’s her voice that is asking a question she desperately needed answers to but that is _not_ her who is asking the question. 

If she remembered correctly, she was leering over Danny, invading his personal space the same way whatever’s hijacking her body was. Danny looked at her in horror, arms hunched together, hands raised in front of his chest, as if he was trying to _protect_ himself before running away. 

* * *

Another blank spot in her memory, and she found herself in front of Danny and his two loser friends. Sam, as she could remember, was defensive, standing in front of her, the wings of her stupid cape billowing behind her. The true epitome of a bat, comes the thought. 

But that’s not _her_ thinking that thought. That’s the thing highjacking her body thinking that. 

Facing Sam, she turned hostile and this is a hostility that she was not used to, a hostility that she has never used towards the goth. “Don't get your batwings in a bundle.”

Her voice called out to Danny in a sing song voice, to which he popped out behind Sam like a toddler. 

That’s cute.

And that’s Paulina actually thinking that. 

“Danny. Why'd you run?” She knew why he ran. Because she found out something that she shouldn’t have known. “I know it freaked you out that I discovered your secret but, I won't tell.”

Paulina was not the one who was making the promise, but she was the one who was going to keep it. Her, Sam, and the tech geek were the keepers of a terrible secret, a secret that she had no business knowing. Just because she should not know this secret did not mean she wasn’t going to keep it a secret. She had no clue what would happen to Danny if someone else were to find out. Aren’t there movies where the government and scientists take something- _someone,_ Paulina. He’s a person, he’s still living, he has a soul. 

She didn’t know that for certain, but that’s what she wanted to think. That’s what she needed to think. 

The one with the red beret and wearing the dorky glasses was suspicious, and he had every right to be. She and this entity that was piloting her body were outsiders, privy to something that did not concern them. “How can we trust you?”

This thing that had control over of her every movement, slinked her body towards Danny, pushing Sam out of the way, and she’s standing merely inches away from Danny. “You can trust me because it’s my secret too, which makes it... _our_ secret,” her voice turned salacious and Paulina despised how overly manipulative she sounded. Whatever this thing was, whatever it was up to, whatever it wanted, it was nothing _good_. 

Sam had said something, but either her mind or whatever’s in her body did not deem it important enough to remember. The goth’s speech came out as a bunch of garbled static, choosing instead to focus on Danny’s and his big baby blue eyes. 

“So,” Danny began, gesturing his hands towards her body and what he thought _was_ her. “You think it’s cool that I have these powers?” 

Paulina picked up on the insecurity laced in his voice, the same insecurity the other nerds had at school that she and her friends teased them for, the same insecurity that she had repressed before stepping out of her house for school. But this is an insecurity that was bigger than puce yellow pus, than whether or not she would get into the school of her dreams because she got one C minus on an exam. 

This was an insecurity that was asking the question: _Are you cool with the fact that I am dead? Are you cool with the fact that I have died? Are you truly okay with that?_

Paulina did not have a clear answer for that question. 

She sharped turned away from him, her back facing him. “No,” her voice began. Paulina did not want to imagine how his face crumpled at that. “I think it’s _hot._ See ya!”

Trying to grapple and cope with the fact that a boy in your class ~~and one that you thought was kinda cute to begin with~~ was dead is much more important than thinking that his powers were hot in any sort of way. She didn’t really know what to think of his powers but whatever is controlling her used her voice to speak for her, to speak on her thoughts. 

Danny, who did not know any better, ate up her words. Paulina’s body skipped away, and the thing that was using her seemed happy with what it was doing. 

Understandably, Paulina was not.

* * *

Paulina seemed to notice something. That the memories she could remember all that clearly or not at all did not involve Danny and the memories that she had more clarity, always involved the other. So she won’t remember how she acted towards her parents, how she behaved around her friends-unless they were in the same memory as Danny, and as it seemed, she would never be able to access that part of her. 

She liked to think that someone other than the goth girl noticed that something was off. That someone really cared enough to notice that the Paulina they were seeing, talking and spilling out dangerous secrets of vulnerability, giving time and affection to was not _Paulina._ But as she came to find out, they didn't notice it. 

Her next memory that she can remember started with her showing up to Danny’s locker just as he was appearing out of there. Goth Girl and Glasses Geek stood outside of his locker, their arms folded, similar to how bouncers carried themselves at the doors of the club. Was this how they made sure to keep Danny’s secret safe? To stand out, to bring more attention to him? It didn’t seem like the safest way to keep a secret, you know, a secret. Paulina would love to teach them the basics of SecretKeeping 101 if her body was her own right now. 

If Danny was found out, if anything happened to Danny because of how obvious they were being, then she would consider making them pay for allowing harm to come to Danny. 

Paulina had questions for the entity that was controlling her. How did she get there because she can’t really remember walking there? When did she get there? Did no one really notice that she had up and gone to another place?

“Good job Danny,” her voice said excitedly. 

Danny flinched as he stammered out, “W-where did you come from?”

“Mr. Fenton. There you are. You were due to smack the erasers 5 minutes ago. Where were you?” Mr. Lancer questioned, looming over Danny and Paulina realized just how short Danny was. That’s kind of adorable. 

Paulina’s body gravitated towards Danny, as if he was the ocean and she was the moon during high tides, and curled her perfectly manicured fingers around his shoulders. “He’s with me,” she said smoothly, watching how Mr. Lancer’s eyebrows rose in curiosity. “We’re dating.”

There were gasps at the admission. She was surprised herself that her body had said something so bold and tempting, that was completely out of her reach. It’s not like she didn’t want to date Danny. It sounded like a lovely idea, he seemed cute, sweet, and everything else that made Danny so wonderful that she wanted to say and think but must bury because whatever was controlling her body would thrive over feeding on her infatuation, crush? 

“Well, that certainly ups your street cred. Mr. Fenton,” Lancer said. “Mr. Foley, you're not dating out of your league. You can smack the erasers together. You two lovebirds enjoy lunch.”

She picked up on the blatant favoritism but she couldn’t call him out on something that was benefitting both her and Danny, lest she ruined the status quo that she has got them wrapped up in. 

Someone spoke behind her. Again, it sounded like a bunch of garbled static. Her mind and the mind that was within her mind focused its attention on Danny. 

“I-I'm really happy that you're cool with this Paulina. But everyone's kinda staring at us,” Danny said nervously, big blue eyes stared into her and she wanted to shy away from them yet she can not, as she is forced to look at him with moon-eyes.”

Paulina managed to get a quick peek of her surroundings. She picked up on the blue walls and recognized them as the cafeteria. When did they get there? She didn’t remember doing the physical walking to the cafeteria with Danny. 

“That's because you're with me now,” The thing that spoke for her said and she really wanted that to be true on _her_ terms. “And speaking of that. How would you like to come with me to a bowling party on Friday night.”

Danny’s blue eyes grew impossibly big. “You mean, like a date?”

“Not like a date. A date.”

He agreed. The thing that was controlling her cheered. Paulina did not want this to happen. 

Not like this.

* * *

The date, as she remembered it, was the best memory that she had. Try as she might, she didn't remember what time she said for him to pick her up. Yet, Danny showed up to the door of her house twenty minutes before he had to be because he was nervous, didn't want to be late and he didn't want to let her down. 

Paulina, if she was able to, would cry at how sweet he was being towards her, towards whoever was piloting her body. She let him in, they sat down on her parents' nice, expensive leather sofa, and they talked. 

Well, he talked, her voice talked for her while she was forced to listen and she learned some things about him. 

One: he wanted to be an astronaut. He loved space more than life itself and so desperately wanted to float and hover in the deep vacuum of space, to see the Earth's horizon and watch the sun peek above it. One day, when Paulina was no longer like this, when she had control of her body once again, she wanted to take him to the planetarium, to the observatory on a _real_ date, not this date that was built on lies and deception. She wanted to see the genuine joy that he felt when he talked about the stars and planets, she wanted to be a part of that joy, to smile, nod and learn something that he made her care about, she wanted to be the _reason_ behind that joy. 

Two he hadn’t been a ghost for very long. She had a moment of clarity, a moment that she was truly herself and that was when she asked the question. The accident happened very recently. A portal, a dare, and a flash of light, he told her. Danny tried to play it off as a joke. She couldn’t help but be horrified. He called himself a halfa. For him to call himself a halfa, that had to imply that there was another. 

Not only did he die, halfway die, but his closest friends witnessed his death. She could empathize with the horror and the shock they felt because she’s feeling those exact same emotions. 

Three: his parents are ghost hunters. This is something that she passively knew of but did not think too deeply into. But that was before she knew Danny's secret. Scientists are curious, they wanted to know what made things unbeknownst to them tick and she's seen enough horror movies involving scientists to know what happened. That fear of what would happen to Danny if he was ever caught came back. Whatever was controlling her, did not care what happened to Danny. She could sense that it had something with Danny, a sense of familiarity and an awareness that he had ghost hunters for parents. Paulina was curious if it knew that he was Invis-O-Bill the whole time. 

If that was the case, if she got her body back and regained control of it, she will fix what hijacked her body and beat the shit out of it for using her to hurt someone that she was taking a liking to. 

And just as she was on the fringe of learning a third thing, her and Danny are interrupted with the arrival of Star and Techno-Geek. She remembered that their hands rested on top of each other, like _real_ lovers did and that they stared at each other like they hung the moon. 

One blink later and they're at the bowling alley. Manicured fingers are curled into the three holes of the bowling ball. Her other hand awkwardly curved around to the bottom of the bowling ball. To the ghost—what she is starting to think is a ghost, based on what she knew about ghosts and she wondered why she didn’t think of it earlier— controlling her body, that is **not** how you hold a bowling ball. 

The ghost didn’t listen and rolled the ball down her lane. It ended up in the gutter of the lane. The jocks behind her laughed and she thought they must have chalked it up to teen girl awkwardness. The ghost is making a fool out of her because she knew how to bowl. 

Her body turned towards Danny, “Danny. I'm so embarrassing myself,” her hands were thrown up in mock defeat and embarrassment. “Could you be an angel and give me a little invisible help?” Paulina’s eyebrows were seductively raised up and down and she hated every bit of that.

Danny looked at her aghast. Bless his pure little heart. “But that’s cheating!” he protested and then wilted when her body gave him a LookTM. “Or...creative scoring. I’ll be right back after your strike.”

And a strike did she get. Her body jumped up and down as the ghost inside her cheered and kissed his cheek. “I did it! I did it! I did it! You're the best, Danny.” The ghost said, with her voice, using her lips to plant a kiss on Danny’s cheek.

Danny’s cheeks flushed a deep red as he looked away and chuckled. “It’s good to be the best,” he stammered out. 

Danny was falling for a scam of Paulina. Paulina was falling for Danny, at least not in the way she wanted it to happen. 

* * *

The two are outside of the bowling alley. Danny is pushed up against the wall, and Paulina is in front of him, her hands pressed on the wall, next to Danny’s neck, trapping him in between her arms. 

“If you like me, then kiss me,” she said, leaning forward, puckering her lips for a kiss. While she would have liked to kiss Danny, she thought he would have the softest lips and how heavenly it would be to have them pressed up against hers, this wasn’t how she wanted it to be.

Danny grinned, “I’m the luckiest guy in the world,” he said. 

A familiar frosty chill came back. The one that she felt right before all of this happened. A bright light shone brightly on the wall and she turned around watching as the light came closer to the two of them before stopping right in front of them. Her body turned around to face the intruder, and the ghost inside of her flared in anger. Paulina thought that the ghost piloting her body knew this intruder very intimately. 

Paulina felt her body become hers once again seconds before she lost consciousness. Her eyes opened once again, and everything was a bit blurry, both in sight and in her thoughts. She looked up at Danny and blinked, and there was so much she wanted to say. _"I'll keep your secret safe. I will keep you safe. I want to get to know you for you. I want us to be a thing on_ **_our_ ** _terms."_

However, she didn't get a chance to say any of those things before the ghost took over her body once again and she was re-energized once again. shooting up like a weed, telling some guy named Johnny to screw himself and leaning over for Danny, ready to kiss him again like there wasn't someone watching him. Like he didn't just find out that someone was controlling the girl of his dreams. 

Danny, as she expected, did not kiss her. 

But Johnny, who reminded her of possessive exes that she saw in school and on TV was not happy, whistled for some reason and she saw that reason very soon. A shadow appeared out of the building and it's going to fight Danny. 

As much as Paulina herself wanted to fight, wanted to help Danny fight, she couldn't. 

"Come on Kitty," Johnny said. Oh, so that was the name of the ghost who was controlling her? "Quit wiggin and come back to me. I'll be good."

Fat chance, that he'll actually be good. "Forget it low-life."

Good thing that Kitty agreed. 

One thing happened, a crash, a punch that she heard but didn't see and her body's moving, running thanks to Kitty. Her wrist was caught by Johnny, who pulled her on his bike. 

"Let's take this elsewhere shall we?" he said, and from how smarmy and slimy his voice sounded, it sounded very suggestive even if that wasn't what he intended. 

Johnny revved up his bike, going faster. This was Paulina's first time on a bike, and here she was, without a helmet and with a guy she wasn't comfortable with. There wasn't any way that this whole _thing_ couldn't get any worse.

Then it did. Curse Paulina and her thoughts because the damn thing started flying. She's miles above the city and she took it all in before she's lifted out of the motorcycle and into Danny's strong arms.

She would have marveled at how pretty this was if she wasn't being possessed and if she wasn't in the middle of some weird love rectangle. Danny flew the two of them away from Johnny into the middle of the park. 

"I knew that you would come back for me!" Kitty cried out, kissing him on the cheek. Paulina wanted to argue that he came back for _Paulina._ She opened Paulina's eye and Paulina can feel the pettiness deeply rooted in Kitty's heart-do ghosts even have hearts?-as Johnny found the two of them. 

"Alright, you want her? You can have her! I'm gone!" he yelled, before disappearing into a green portal. 

Danny looked at the portal and Paulina can feel him shift his green eyes to look at her even though he isn't facing her. "He can ride in and out of the Ghost Zone when he wants now?"

There's a zone that holds ghosts? What the fuck, Paulina wanted to say. But for obvious reasons, she did not. "He stole some doo-dad from your dad's bike last time he was here and then he hotwired it to his bike?" Kitty said, then planted another kiss on Danny's cheek. Paulina wanted her to stop, stop using her body to give out love that she wasn't able to do herself. "Is that _really_ what you want to talk about though?"

Danny frowned. "No. We should talk about something a little more important." 

He bent down, picked her up from under her legs and they flew off into the night. 

* * *

"Look, Danny, I didn't wanna cause you any trouble," Kitty said. Paulina didn't recognize the voice she used.

Mainly because that's not Paulina's voice. At all. 

Danny was floating above her, arms folded, legs bent behind him and green eyes looking down on her in annoyance and irritation. It looked like the face he would wear if they were a real couple who just got into a fight. From the raised eyebrows, the flat, deadpan tone of his not tolerating bullshit voice, Paulina thought that was a very cute look on him, it would be even cuter if Kitty hadn't taken over her body and her body wasn't the one being interrogated. 

"Well, you're about eight shadow attacks too late. What's the story?"

He asked 'whats the story' like this wasn't the first time he had to play mediator. Like this wasn't the first time he's been held up in a lover's quarrel. 

Paulina thought they were both mighty young to be used as pawns for something so grown up. 

Kitty recounted her take of woe, of wanting to go to Amity Park-even though, seriously? There were better cities to go sightseeing in, Kitty- of how ignored she felt, how Johnny looked at literally every other teenage girl in town, how Kitty remembered that Johnny couldn't _stand_ Danny and that he was the perfect person to make jealous.

"I was going to overshadow your friend, the spooky chick in black," Kitty said. "You like her, don't you?"

Danny darted his eyes away from her. "Sam? I-I-"

Paulina didn't want to think about Danny possibly ending up with Sam, lest she ended up thinking that she was entitled to Danny because he liked her so much. Wasn't entitlement to other people how they all ended up in this mess? 

"I ended up in this body. Go fig," continued Kitty, shrugging Paulina's shoulders. "But the good news is you like her too. Johnny's furious, I'm pretty, you're popular. Everybody wins."

Except for Paulina. She didn't win a damn thing at all, Paulina bitterly thought. Not shit, except to see a boy she liked get tossed around because some other girl was feeling petty and jealous about her boyfriend.

"Except Paulina," Danny said, saying what she wanted to say out loud. "You realize you're gonna have to stop this, right?"

Kitty threw Paulina's hands up in the air. "Maybe," she said, Kitty's voice sliding back into Paulina's. "Or maybe Paulina might slip up and tell the town that Danny Fenton is the ghost boy."

Kitty would slip up. Paulina would do everything in her very limited power to stop her from ruining Danny's life. She'll ruin Kitty's instead, have everything she loved dearly taken from her, have _her_ shipped to a scientist to investigate. 

_'No the fuck you won't, you skank.'_ Kitty thought to Paulina. 

_'Just you fucking watch me,'_ Paulina thought back. _'Ruin his life and I'll ruin yours.'_

Danny lifted his finger. "It's Invis-O-Bill."

Kitty stood up. "See you at lunch tomorrow, _boyfriend."_

Kitty and Paulina trot up the stairs leading out of the Fenton Lab. 

_'He likes you too much to put you at risk, Paulie.'_ Kitty thought smugly. 

Paulina, as much as she hated to admit it, knew that Kitty was correct. Their fates were in Kitty's hands. 

* * *

For the next few days-was it really days or was Paulina misremembering it- her, Kitty, and her body were attached to Danny no matter what and she felt so bad for him, with how suffocating all of this had to be. Even though her time with Danny, with Danny being the root of her memories, she still couldn’t really remember those next few days. 

But she remembered the park, for it was the end of this hell that she and Danny were in. She remembered sitting on a blanket, far away from screaming children, mothers, and mid-afternoon joggers, and Danny sitting next to her. 

“Oh Danny you are so romantic!” Kitty crooned and Paulina felt sick to her stomach. It’s not really her voice that Kitty was using, but her own, yet hearing it come out of her body to a boy she was _really_ starting to like who forced him to be in a situation neither of them wanted to be in, was really jarring to her. 

Danny tilted his head, “You were worth fighting Johnny for.”

“Awww that's sweet.”

“And you know what? I'd kick his butt a hundred times more and a hundred times harder if he ever shows his sorry face again,” Danny said in what Paulina recognized to be a _clearly and obviously_ exaggerated voice, holding his arms close to his chest, miming out rolling and throwing punches at an imaginary Johnny. 

And then Johnny showed up, and they fought, and Paulina and Kitty watched on, Kitty on edge worried that her kinda, sorta boyfriend but not boyfriend at the moment was going to get beat up too badly while Paulina silently cheered on Danny because she somehow knew that he planned all of this and she wanted him to win. 

There was a moment when Danny was standing over Johnny, the biker lightly bruised and Danny raised a hand to his face, something glowing forming in his hand and she sat there on edge because for the very short time that she had known Danny, she knew that he was not a killer. He was not the type of person, ghost, halfa to murder someone in cold blood

Just before he could discharge his blast, there was a scream and Paulina faded into unconsciousness. 

* * *

She ended up in Danny’s arms once again. 

“Um hi. Do you know who I am by any chance?” he asked her. He didn’t mask his anxiety all that well and she picked up on it easily.

Paulina knew why he was asking her this question. He had to make sure that she didn’t know his most important secret, the one that could get him killed twice. 

Unbeknownst to him, she will play her role in this facade of necessary deception for the sake of his safety and livelihood. Even if she won’t be able to sit at his side after long nights of ghost hunting to tend to his wounds, to listen and learn more about ghosts through his long-winded rants. Even if she won’t able to spend time with Danny, she will do this for the greater good. 

“Sure,” she said. Play up the oblivious schoolgirl act. “You're that ghost boy who saved my life. Twice apparently. Invis-O-Bill, right?”

“Uh, sure,” he said with a grin, rubbing his hands behind his neck. “I need a publicist.”

* * *

Paulina wished she could be his publicist. 

The next time Paulina saw Danny, it was at school. Her locker was redecorated to have photos of Danny in his ghost form, as a shrine of sorts. She had to do it, Paulina told herself, to keep up the facade, to keep up the status quo. 

Slamming her locker shut, she leaned up against her locker and slid down and started walking past Danny and his two friends. Danny walked up to her and stopped her. 

“Hi Paulina,” he said. 

This part was going to hurt but she had to do it. “Ew, why are you even talking to me?” 

And as she walked away, she heard a student cheer and Danny go, “Can you believe that? Paulina’s still in love, but with the wrong me.”

_‘No, I’m not,’_ she thought. _‘I’m in love with the right one. I just can’t be with him.’_

**Author's Note:**

> Leave a comment and kudos!!!


End file.
